Kentucky imposes livestock restrictions

More About:

Kentucky State Veterinarian Robert C. Stout has imposed restrictions on certain livestock entering the state from Nebraska and Texas as a result of outbreaks of tuberculosis in cattle in those states.

Kentucky also has prohibited entry of livestock from one south Texas county because a horse there has been diagnosed with vesicular stomatitis.

“The very best way to manage these diseases is to keep them from getting into Kentucky’s livestock in the first place,” Dr. Stout said. “Kentucky’s livestock industry generates about $3 billion a year in cash receipts to farmers every year. We will do everything we can under the law to protect this vital sector of Kentucky agriculture.” The new rules on livestock from Nebraska and Texas require a negative tuberculosis test within 60 days of entry into Kentucky or movement from an accredited herd for cattle 18 months old or older and goats and camelids six months old or older.

Nebraska officials have confirmed tuberculosis in two cattle in the north-central part of the state. The state has quarantined 32 herds with about 15,000 adult cattle. The National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, has confirmed a diagnosis of tuberculosis in a dairy cattle herd in west Texas.

The Texas Animal Health Commission has announced that vesicular stomatitis in 2009 was found in a horse in Starr County in far south Texas. Kentucky state regulations prohibit the entry of all livestock, wild and exotic animals into the Commonwealth from the VS-infected county. Regulations require livestock, wild and exotic animals from the rest of Texas to be tested and found negative for VS within 10 days of entering Kentucky, have an entry permit from the state veterinarian’s office, and have a Certificate of Veterinary Inspection showing that the animals have been examined within five days of entering Kentucky.

Vesicular stomatitis is a viral disease that occurs sporadically in the U.S., usually in southwestern states. It can affect horses, cattle and swine, and occasionally sheep, goats and deer. It causes blisters to form in the animal’s mouth, on teats or along the hooves, resulting in excessive salivation, lameness or oozing sores.

The last outbreak of VS in the United States was in Wyoming in 2006. The disease spread through several western states in 2005.

For more information or for updates, go to the Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s Web site, http://www.kyagr.com, and click on Animal Health or call the Office of the State Veterinarian at (502) 564-3956.